Wagner Group Army, Poland Deploys 2,000 Soldiers To Strengthen Borders With Belarus

Illustration of the Polish - Belarusian border. (Wikimedia Commons/Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnurznych i Administracji)

JAKARTA - Poland will send 2,000 troops to its border with Belarus, double the number requested by the Border Guard to stem illegal crossings and maintain stability, the deputy interior minister told the PAP government news agency on Wednesday.

Poland, which has been worried about its border areas since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, is increasingly concerned about the presence of hundreds of Wagner Group mercenaries who have been trained to go to war, at President Alexander Lukashenko's invitation.

This week, Belarus began military exercises near the border while President Lukashenko said he had detained Wagner fighters who wanted to attack Poland several times.

Poland has also seen a large increase in the number of migrants originating from the Middle East and Africa trying to cross the border in recent months.

Over the past two years, Poland has accused Belarus of recruiting migrants from poor countries and sending them across the border illegally to trigger instability.

"This strengthening will not be carried out with 1,000, but with 2,000 troops," Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Maciej Wasik told PAP.

"This decision was made by the Security Committee, this decision was made by the Minister of Defense Mariusz Blaszczak," he explained.

On Monday, Wasik said that the Border Guard asked for an additional 1,000 troops to deploy.

He added that all attempts to illegally enter Poland by migrants are now being organized by Belarusian authorities.

"If we had a real border guard on the other hand, and not a smuggling service, this crossing wouldn't exist at all," he said.